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Looking Glass Rock, located in Brevard, North Carolina is famous for classic Aid Climbing routes like Glass Menagerie, as well as moderate classics such as The Nose. If you’ve never climbed there, the unique “eyebrow” features and classic slab climbing are well worth your time.

It’s also a great place for a new trad leader like me to cut my teeth. Moderate, but challenging, multi-pitch routes with generally great gear, bolted anchors (for the most part), and clean rappel stations allow for plenty of fun, challenge, and just enough fear to feel like a significant accomplishment.

Last Saturday was my first time leading a significant objective with my new female partner, Amy Glenn. It was also my first time leading where I am the most experienced climber and there is no Ben (my crusty trad-master fiancé) to bail me out. Amy and I targeted Sundial Crack, a classic, 3-pitch, 5.8 line located just to the right of The Nose. I have led The Nose with Ben, so I have some experience at Looking Glass, but I had climbed that route twice before leading it. Sundial Crack would be an onsite (meaning I’d never climbed it before). After a read-up on mountain project, and studying the route description in the guidebook, I felt ready to take it on.

Saturday proved to be one of our first fall days to FEEL like fall (or maybe even winter). Amy and I awakened at the crack of dawn to get our day started, and we got to the base of Sundial by about 8:00. At just over 40 degrees, and in the shade, the wind was howling and I was wishing I’d brought more layers. This was to be a consistent theme for the day!

I set out to lead the opening 5.5 pitch – which requires the same move over and over again as you move up the “eyebrows.” I felt super-confident — right up until I started climbing! Then, suddenly, I had a little of that scared feeling in the pit of my stomach. It felt good to get my first piece in, and I started to remember how to climb on slab (I hadn’t climbed at Looking Glass since May and it was October!).

The last section of the first pitch includes two bulges, and when I got to the ledge before the first bulge, I regretted that I hadn’t taken the opportunity to place another piece of gear right before that ledge. I had passed up gear because I had placed a solid cam about a foot below, but after looking all over the ledge for gear before the crux move – and not finding any – I was wishing that my last piece wasn’t 8 ft below me. I finally decided to pull the crux with the gear I had. Using the great handholds on the bulge, I went for it. Once I got above the first bulge, I was happy to plug a piece before pulling the second bulge.

At that point, I was about 10 ft from the anchors and it was easy “slabbing” from there. I was happy to clove hitch into the first bolt and call down, “Off-belay!” I quickly got on the other bolt as well, and began setting up my ATC Guide in auto-block mode to belay Amy up. While I pulled the rope up, I looked down and counted my pieces. I think I placed five pieces of gear on the entire pitch, but I felt like each piece was really solid. I was feeling like I was starting to get into the “Zen” of leading, and just in time, too.

The last picture you see shows me hanging on the anchor at the top of P1. There were no more pictures through P2 and P3, because the wind kicked up and the climbing got more hairy!

Amy joined me at the P1 belay after uneventful climbing, and she asked if I’d looked at P2 (the crux 5.8 pitch). I laughed and said, “Hadn’t even glanced up yet!” I got her tied in to the belay system, re-racked the gear she had cleaned (did I mention that Amy is a meticulous second, re-racking the draws as she climbs – Ben says I could learn something from her!), and began looking at P2. I was super glad I’d kept on my Nano Puff over my expedition weight jacket, because the wind was crazy and it was COLD!

P2 traverses up and right at a 45-degree angle until you reach the bolted anchors. It looked like pretty tame climbing leading off the anchor, so I clipped into one of the anchor bolts as my first piece on the route and headed up and right. I felt like I was moving efficiently, placing good gear, and ignoring the wind. At about the halfway point, I made a couple heady moves up with no hands, and placed two bomber tri-cams. I called down to Amy to tell her she’d need her nut tool for them.

Finally, I reached the crux, a point about 20 ft below and slightly to the left of the anchors. My last gear placement was about 5 feet below me and to the left. I could see the next spot for good gear, but, unfortunately, I had to make some hard moves through blank slab with little feet and no hands to get to the next gear. I made the first hard move and stepped up to a decent stance. I was still too far from the eyebrow crack I needed to reach to place my next piece of gear. I had to step up one more time.

I studied the options carefully, and then moved to step up on my right foot. I had really no hands to speak of to hold on with – just some slabby slopers for balance. I got my weight up on my right foot and realized that I had put myself in “no man’s land”. I looked down and left at my last piece of gear, and assessed the fall potential. If I took a fall, I would swing about 10 ft down and left to below my last piece – not pretty. I could feel that process starting in my mind where you start panicking, and I told myself to pull it together. I managed to step back down and left back to my stance. I studied the moves a while longer, stepping my weight up a couple different ways and backing down again. I finally made a waist-high step up with my left foot, using my left hand to grip a side-pull and pushing down with my right hand on a high sloper. I felt my right foot smoothly drag behind me and got it up even with my left foot on the ledge. Yes!!! I had made it! I placed my gear, and was super relieved to clip into it!

Looking up, I had two easy moves to the anchors. I made the moves and quickly got clove-hitched into the bolts. Whew! I yelled out a “Whoopee!” as I called down to tell Amy I was off-belay.

I set up the belay for Amy close to the bolts, and gave myself enough length on my rope that I could sit sideways and get my weight off my feet, which were killing me! Slab climbing is super hard on your feet, and with the cold everything was stiff and my heels and toes needed a break. I huddled into the rock wall while I belayed Amy up the pitch.

Amy was slow going up P2, but made it pretty efficiently to the crux move before the anchors. She spent some time studying the moves after making the initial hard step up to the first stance. Finally, she made the moves and joined me at the anchors! Two pitches down, one to go!

P3 of Sundial Crack starts out with a 20ft crack just to the left of the P2 anchors. What’s cool about this route vs. The Nose is that you totally switch gears on P3. You move from slabbing up eyebrows to a full crack climb (unless you cheat and just climb the face to the left like Ben does).

I clipped the anchor bolt as my first piece, and easily traversed left into the base of the crack. Like many cracks, getting into it was a little challenging. The crack was about my fist width (I have small hands) and took yellow and red cams beautifully. I felt really confident making the crack moves, as I always was able to get gear placements above me before making the next step up. At one point, I hung off a fist jam to move both my feet up, and once I got higher, I walked my last cam up the crack. I even pulled a piece out below me once I had good gear placed above to conserve gear for the belay I had to build at the top of the pitch.

To me, the crux of the P3 was at the top of the crack – as the crack ended, the slab blanked out and you had to make two steps up with no hands. I did place a bomber little offset cam in the eyebrow above and to the right of the end of the crack. I did the first hard step up, felt my foot slip, and weighted my piece as I stepped back to my last solid feet – also known as “an aggressive down climb”. Finally, I made the two steps up, starting with a high right foot and a little mantle move. Then I was finally moving back in the eyebrows.

The top of P3 is a gear belay in an awesome horizontal crack that sits on top of a bowl. I kept looking for it as I moved up and up the eyebrows, placing sparse pieces as my gear dwindled and I knew I needed at least 3 solid pieces for the anchor. Finally, I saw the spot just 10 ft above me and I carefully made my way there. I plugged my red, green, and yellow cams in the crack (for some reason the color coding works better for me than the sizes – maybe it’s a girl thing?). I felt like I got three bomber placements, ran a cordelette through each piece’s carabiner, pulled the loops between down to equalize, tied them off in a knot, and clipped into the power point with my locking biner. I called down “Off-belay” and felt super psyched to have made it all this way. Just one more half pitch to the parking lot where the rappel anchors sit between The Nose and Sundial, and we begin the descent.

I got to work pulling the rope, setting up the belay using the “shelf” above the knot in my cordelette, being sure to clip into a strand going to each piece of protection, and called down to Amy to begin climbing. Each time I set up the auto-block, I made sure to test that the line running to the climbing would correctly auto-lock if pulled down. This is a critical step for a new leader – as setting up the auto-block wrong can be really dangerous if the climber takes a significant fall.

Amy took a little fall on the crack, barely weighting the rope, but I felt good knowing I was hanging on the anchor I had built with full confidence and that it had easily held her weight as well. I watched my pieces as she climbed up and they stayed solidly engaged in the rock.

Amy finished the pitch in good style, and joined me at the belay. I got set up to lead off toward the rappel anchors, and took off to the left. I placed a piece in the crack to the left of the anchor, so if I fell I wouldn’t put my entire weight on the anchor, and moved left. I chose to go left and climb up the crack toward the rappel anchors. I was super tired of slabbing up eyebrows with no hands, and even though the crack might have required some harder moves, there was a great layback flake to hold onto all the way up!

Before I knew it, I was at the rappel anchors – meeting up with another party that was there, too. I clipped directly into the bolts, leaving the rappel rings free for them to rappel down first.

This is where I made my first serious mistake of the day. I should have clipped in, and just waited to bring Amy up after the other party had rappelled down. Instead, I set up my belay feeling pressure from the other team to hurry. As a result, I forgot to clip the locking biner into the auto-block slot on my ATC Guide, and as Amy starting climbing I felt the rope flowing a little too freely. I quickly grabbed a locking biner and fixed the problem, but I think I would have avoided the mistake altogether had I simply been patient and waited.

The other team rappelled down, Amy joined me at the belay, and we clipped in on slings (me) and using a personal anchor system (Amy) so I could untie from the rope, tie the rope to the extra 60 meter rope Amy had carried up the climb using two overhand knots side-by-side with a long tail, and run the rope through the rappel rings. I rappelled down first, feeling good about finally being on the ground soon and out of the cold and wind.

I got to the 2nd rappel anchor, clipped in to the bolts, and took myself off rappel. Here is where I made my second mistake of the day. I should have held on to the ends of the ropes, pulled them up and stacked them, running the yellow rope (which I’d already noted was the end to pull) through the rappel rings. Instead I just hung out there, freezing, while I waited for Amy. Had I done those things, we wouldn’t have had the consequences we were about to experience.

Amy joined me at the second rappel anchors, clipped in, and took herself off rappel, then proceeded to undo her prussik … and we both watched in slow motion as the wind whipped both ends of the rope away about 20 ft to the right. We were hanging out at the anchors with no rope. And, with no rope, you have very few options.

Luckily, Looking Glass, and particularly The Nose Area, is a high traffic area. There was a guy to the left of us starting to rappel down the first pitch of The Nose, and a party of two at the top of P3 of The Nose getting ready to rappel down the anchors we came from. We sent up a message asking the party of two to rappel down our rope, bringing the ends back to us. They did so, we were careful to secure it, and the last rappel was uneventful.

I made it to the ground, feeling a sense of accomplishment for what I had done well, and grateful for an opportunity to learn a couple crucial lessons in a situation where the consequences only meant hanging out while freezing a few more minutes.

On Sunday, I came back with Ben, Wes, (the Tattooed Teddy Bear) and Barry (aka the Nature Boy) – my regular climbing crew – and I led the single, 200 ft 5.8 pitch of Gemini Crack. The crux was much more strenuous than Sundial, but I was very proud to also bag that classic. I placed a bomber Tri-Cam on the top of the crux that the team left for each climber to observe – and Barry took a picture. They were so proud.

And so it goes in the life of a new trad leader.

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Quick, what’s the worst thing that can happen to your climbing partner? A busted face? A busted leg? I contend that the worst thing that can happen to a climbing partner is catching a nasty case of girlfrienditis. Not only is he not climbing with you but you know he is physically able to and is choosing to forgo shared epics with you to spend time on terra firma with her. I dodged that bullet when Ben, my climbing partner, was tamed by Tonia because she had been infected with the climbing bug and wanted to learn the mysteries of crusty trad climbing. I mention this because I climbed The Nose at Looking Glass with Ben and Tonia or as they call each other in sickening lovey dovey-ness “hun” and “baby”.

The Nose at Looking Glass is possibly the most well known route in North Carolina. Before I leave for Seattle I had to hit it for that reason and that reason alone. Clocking in at 5.8 it is four pitches of eyebrows and friction. There is a ton of accurate beta floating around the ‘net or in the guidebook (link). It is trad but with bolted anchors on comfy ledges.

Being a classic route and all, it has been worn clean and route finding is pretty obvious if you have any sense what so ever. It is the first route I’ve seen that actually has grooves in the rock from cams being repeatedly placed. In a sea of eyebrows you can’t get lost. Speaking of eyebrows, The Nose is the de facto standard for eyebrow climbing. If you’ve never seen one, an eyebrow is a horizontal slit in the wall that has a sloper bottom but a bomber upside down rail top. They are mini caves in the wall that just eat tricams and provide amazing underclings.

I have really been trying to step up my leading lately in anticipation of not having Ben as a rope gun. I took a 5.7+ pitch on Groover at Laurel Knob and I decided to take the third pitch of The Nose (5.8) this weekend. While that might not sound like much let me put it this way, I can’t consistently climb 5.9 and at 5.10 I have more misses than hits. 5.8 is climbing at my edge but you only get better by pushing the edge, right?

The crux is early on in the third pitch of the Nose and all I had in was a flaring, shallow orange TCU. Not exactly confidence inspiring. After a few minutes of going mentally sketchball and baby stepping my way nowhere I found a beautiful slot to drop a cam that protected the rest of the crux. A couple of deep breaths and I committed to the friction steps of the crux. Luckily with the first committed step I found my groove and 5 mini moves later I was cruising. I have no idea why I mentally struggled so much because this 5.8 felt two grades easier than the first pitch of Groover but I guess every day is different. (Groover Trip Report)

All in all I don’t know what the fuss about The Nose is. Personally I preferred Rat’s Ass and Second Coming to The Nose. If you’re at Looking Glass The Nose is a must do but don’t expect something magical like The Maginot Line at Shortoff Mountain. You’ll just be left disappointed. I should also say that this is an easier 5.8 and pretty tame as far as multipitch goes. If you’re a fledgling 5.8 leader then this is the route to do.

Postscript:

On the rappel down I met Andrew, a New Zealander in the States for a camp. He was climbing Sundial Crack which is purportedly better than The Nose. Definitely hit them both while you’re there. If you move efficiently The Nose shouldn’t take more than a few hours and the same goes for Sundial Crack. All the pictures of the guy with orange cordollete are on Sundial Crack.

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I’m still trying to figure out what I want to say about the most widely known climb in North Carolina. The Nose at Looking Glass deserves a well thought out trip report but in the mean time I’m going to post some pictures of when Ben, Ben’s girlfriend Tonia and I climbed it. BTW, the guy with the orange cordolette is actually climbing Sundial Crack which starts about 100 feet to climber’s right of The Nose.

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I just went climbing at Looking Glass last weekend which is probably the most famous climbing place in North Carolina. I got my sorry as up Second Coming, Rat’s Ass and Zodiac which are all in the 5.8 range but they are ‘old school’ 5.8s in the words of a 55 year old I was climbing with. Out of curiosity I looked up some stuff on Looking Glass when I got home and I found this awesome video of Second Coming. I give serious points to the creators.

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The outdoors can be dangerous. Accidents happen. This blog is solely intended for those who wear big boy pants and take personal responsibility for their actions. By accessing this blog you accept this responsibility and hold Jon (that's me) unaccountable for any accidents that come about on your grand adventures.